My Current Opinion

Judge Not

by Guy Spiro

Once when my daughter Anne was a toddler, she and my wife Jeanne and I were driving home from a family outing. We had bought Anne a balloon. It was a hot day, the car windows were open and as we picked up speed on the highway, Anne began to cry. At first, we had no idea why. Then we saw that the balloon, which she had shown no interest in, was blowing wildly about and scaring her. Without thinking, I caught the balloon and put it out my window. At that instant I locked eyes with the guy in the car next to us. What he sees is a man throwing a crying child's balloon away. What was in reality a great relief to Anne made me look like a monster in this guy's eyes. He may wonder to this day what ever became of that poor little kid with the mean dad.

We are continually confronted with opportunities to make negative judgments. There is much in the world and all around us that is easy to disapprove of. It's hard not to be judgmental. But as the example above illustrates, we are almost never really in a position to see clearly enough make these calls. Aside from our inability to even form valid judgments of others is the damage to ourselves that's a result of being judgmental.

Judge not, lest you be judged, remains very good advice. When we devote our consciousness to dwelling on the memory and wallowing in the emotions attendant to someone's real or imagined transgression, we create more of that kind of energy in our lives.

When we sit in negative judgment, we are poisoning ourselves. Remember that the subconscious does not differentiate between self and others. When you think and feel negatively toward someone else, it creates a form for the energy with which your life is built to flow. The result can only be more of this sort of manifestation in your life. The only person you can punish is you.

Certainly there are people in your life that have wronged you. Facts are facts and things have occurred. The point is not that we shouldn't remember the past -- but to not continue living in it. I hope the fellow who did not see what he thought he saw as I rescued Anne from her scary balloon has forgotten and not dwelled on it. Let us continue to make progress in our own process of releasing negative judgments and forgiving. Imagine how the world will change as ever-increasing numbers of people join us in this work.

Next Article